The present invention is directed to component and system reliability and more particularly, a method, apparatus and system to generate accurate and low variance reliability estimates in order to enable timely logistical positioning of products in a delivery cue and also to conduct efficient programs of predictive maintenance.
The reliability of components and systems of components is a crucial factor in business operations and such reliability is on a critical path for most hardware product businesses. Therefore accurate and low variance reliability estimates are useful to enable the timely logistical positioning of products within a delivery cue and to also conduct efficient programs of predictive, periodic and preventative maintenance.
There has been a significant amount of work and study directed to component and system reliability assessment analysis, with regard to such components or systems at a single location. Many organizations have compiled large amounts of data regarding the components and system of components which they sell. This data is useful in connection with reliability assessment analysis processes. However, a problem exists for organizations which are geographically dispersed or segmented according to functions performed. Such organizations will commonly store any reliability data and/or ancillary data directed to components or systems of components manufactured, configured or assembled at a specific site on a database located at that same geographic location. Alternatively, one business area of an organization, such as a shipping department, may keep data it has accumulated on databases distinct from databases used by another area of a business, such as the manufacturing department. While information stored on these distinct databases may include useful reliability and/or ancillary data, it is often not obtainable by others within the organization at a separate geographic location or in a separate department. Further, in situations where the data is located on multiple databases of the organization, when the data on a first one of the databases is updated, the updated data is not automatically reflected on other databases of the organization. This results in inconsistent and/or expired data on the remaining databases.
Therefore, while organizations have expended effort to acquire valuable, relevant and reliable data, much of this data is partitioned off from many potential users within the organization. This means a reliability assessment analysis for a component or system of components may not have all the useful and up-to-date data existing within the organization. Thus, organizations are now performing sub-optimal analysis not because information has not been collected, but rather because existing data generated by the organization itself is not being used in the analysis either due to the user""s lack of knowledge as to the existence of the data or the inability to obtain the data.
There is therefore a need to eliminate the partitioning of data within an organization and to provide this data to users to perform reliability assessment analysis to reliably predict expected lifetimes and remaining lifetimes of individual components and systems of components. Such an apparatus, method and system would desirably be actively changing, i.e. not static, where it is updated and continually refined by experiential data. It should also be endowed with a suitable input/output interface that allows data to be entered either automatically or by human hand, enables real time analysis of the data and provides the means to communicate the desired results in a variety of formats including graphical outputs.
In an embodiment of the present invention, a reliability assessment analysis system is provided to weigh, winnow and incorporate into a database capability new experiential data on component and system lifetimes and also on important ancillary, data including environmental factors, logistical incidents and practices. This database capability is then made accessible through an extant communications infrastructure by analysis stations that are similarly dispersed geographically or on the basis of business area.